Words belong to each other.

We must reconcile ourselves to a season of failures and fragments.

A writer should give direct certainty; explanations are so much water poured into the wine.

No passion is stronger in the breast of man than the desire to make others believe as he believes

Women alone stir my imagination.

Let us again pretend that life is a solid substance, shaped like a globe, which we turn about in our fingers. Let us pretend that we can make out a plain and logical story, so that when one matter is despatched—love for instance—we go on, in an orderly manner, to the next.

Talents of the novelist: ... observation of character, analysis of emotion, people's feelings, personal relations.